During surgery of mammals, such as human beings, it is commonplace during an operation to draw blood or other fluids from a body cavity, in order to provide visibility to the surgeon and others, or for autotransfusion or for any of various reasons. Typically, the blood being drawn off is drawn via a suction tube, with suction provided generally by means of a source of vacuum that is present in the operating room, and which is used to draw the blood into a collection device. The conduit through which the blood is drawn from the body cavity may be a tube, or wand, as is desired, operated by medical personnel at the site of operation. One such suction draw or drainage device is that set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,417.
With increased tendency to seek to salvage the blood of a patient during surgery, for re-transfusion or autotransfusion back to the patient, systems have been developed to collect blood for re-use. The advent of processing systems and the like have led to increased clutter in the surgical field, which can lead to inadvertent misapplication of systems and to loss of efficiency. Autotransfusion of collected blood can be substantially immediate, or can be for collection for later retransfusion, as desired. One such process and apparatus for collecting blood for autotransfusion is that set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,707.
In some instances, such as during surgery, the blood that is collected is a mixture of blood that is readily adapted for reuse or autotransfusion, and blood containing undesirable substances, such as bone chips, irrigating fluids, pharmaceuticals, infectious substances and the like.
Sometimes, the attendant at the site of the operation can instantly observe and distinguish between salvageable, or uncontaminated blood on the one hand, and contaminated or waste blood on the other. In all cases, it is imperative that the surgeon's working field be kept clear and that time not be lost in shifting wands into and out of a cluttered field. Furthermore, it is important that when salvageable fluids, such as blood, are being withdrawn, and especially when it is desired to select between salvageable fluids and non-salvageable fluids, that the two fluids not come into contact with each other.